Because of its complexity, chess offers limitless possibilities. After just three moves, there are over 9,000,000 possible configurations of the board.
Mathematician Claude Shannon calculated the total number of possible board configurations in a game. The result is called the Shannon Number in his honor. He assumed an average of about 1,000 possibilities for a pair of moves consisting of a move for White followed by a move for Black, and a typical game lasting about 40 such pairs of moves.
The conservative lower bound number he came up with is 10120 (1 novemtrigintillion) possibilities.
Curiously, chess is not the most complicated game. Read about the game that has that distinction here.
Fun Google Tricks To Ward Off Boredom
The Commonplace Fun Facts Department of Data, Analytics, Viewer Demographics, and User Engagement (otherwise known as DAVDAUE — yeah, we know. We’re working on a better name) tells us that a significant number of our regular readers spend their lunch breaks with us. We also know a fair number of you are sneaking visits to…
Handguns, Hot Sauce, Board Games, Testosterone and Aggression: Discover the Intriguing Link
Explore how handguns and hot sauce impact testosterone and aggression in men. A fascinating study on male behavior.
Check Out These Wacky Board Games
Admittedly, the Commonplace Fun Facts staff is not really big into board games or games in general. It probably has something to do with the “Does not play well with others” notation that kept showing up in our grade school report cards. Even so, we find ourselves wondering how some board games ever made it…
Leave a Reply